User device with access behavior tracking and passive marking

ABSTRACT

A user device presents passages of an electronic publication. The user device tracks the presented passages. The user device generates, without user input, a first marker identifying a first passage of the electronic publication presented by the user device in response to detecting a first event. The user device further generates, without user input, a second marker identifying a second passage of the electronic publication presented by the user device in response to detecting a second event, wherein the second marker does not overwrite the first marker.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present application is related to co-pending U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 13/050,886, filed Mar. 17, 2011, entitled “USER DEVICE WITHACCESS BEHAVIOR TRACKING AND FAVORITE PASSAGE IDENTIFYINGFUNCTIONALITY”.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

A large and growing population of users enjoy entertainment through theconsumption of electronic publications, such as electronic books (alsoreferred to herein as ebooks), electronic newspapers, electronicmagazines, audio recordings (e.g., audio books), video, films, etc.Users employ various electronic devices to consume such electronicpublications. Among these electronic devices are electronic bookreaders, cellular telephones, personal digital assistants (PDAs),portable media players, tablet computers, electronic pads, netbooks,desktop computers, notebook computers, and the like.

Electronic book (ebook) readers record the last page of an electronicpublication that has been read by a user. Therefore, when a user reopensthe electronic publication the ebook opens to the last page read. If auser wants to record markers for multiple pages for easily returning tothose pages, then the user must manually place bookmarks at those pages.This can become tedious if a user skips around within an electronicpublication (e.g., reading multiple chapters or sections in parallel)because the user must then manually place new bookmarks at everystopping point.

Users may return to the same few pages of their favorite electronicpublications numerous times. However, if a user hasn't read a particularelectronic publication for a while, he may forget the specific pagesthat he likes to read. Therefore, the user may have to search throughthe electronic publication to find those pages. This can become tediousfor a user.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The embodiments described herein will be understood more fully from thedetailed description given below and from the accompanying drawings,which, however, should not be taken to limit the application to thespecific embodiments, but are for explanation and understanding only.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an exemplary network architecture, in whichembodiments of the present invention may operate.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating one embodiment of a contentaccess module.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary user device, inaccordance with one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram illustrating one embodiment of a contentserver.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary server computingdevice, in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a flow diagram of one embodiment for a method of trackingpassages of an electronic publication and automatically generatingmarkers.

FIG. 7 is a flow diagram of another embodiment for a method of trackingpassages of an electronic publication and automatically generatingmarkers.

FIG. 8 is a flow diagram of one embodiment for a method of opening anelectronic publication to a marked passage.

FIG. 9 is a flow diagram of one embodiment for a method of identifying auser's favorite passages.

FIG. 10 is a flow diagram of another embodiment for a method ofidentifying a user's favorite passages.

FIG. 11 shows a graph that presents user access behavior data forpassages.

FIG. 12 is a flow diagram of one embodiment for a method of determiningfavorite passages of multiple users.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PRESENT INVENTION

Methods and systems for tracking a user's access behavior with respectto an electronic publication and using the user's access behavior togenerate passive markers and identify favorite passages are describedherein. In one embodiment, a user device presents passages of anelectronic publication. The user device tracks a user's access behaviorfor the passages of the electronic publication as the user reads, viewsor listens to the passages. The user device generates, without userinput, a first marker identifying a first passage of the electronicpublication presented by the user device in response to detecting afirst event. The first passage may be a last passage of a first sectionof the electronic publication. The user device further generates,without user input, a second marker identifying a second passage of theelectronic publication presented by the user device in response todetecting a second event. The second marker is stored withoutoverwriting the first marker. The second passage may be a last passageof a second section of the electronic publication. The first event andsecond event may include a change page command, a power off command, aclose application command, etc. When the user device later loads theelectronic publication, the user device may present each marker andcontextual information associated with the marker. A user may thenselect a marker, which causes the user device to open the electronicpublication to the passage associated with the selected marker.

The passive markers generated by the user device in accordance withembodiments of the present invention may provide a quick and convenientmeans for a user to read multiple sections of a book in parallel. Thismay be especially useful in academic settings, in which students arefrequently asked to read multiple different sections of text books asreading assignments.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an exemplary network architecture 100, inwhich embodiments described herein may operate. The network architecture100 may include a content providing system 120 and one or more userdevices 104, 153 capable of communicating with the content providingsystem 120 via a network 106 (e.g., a public network such as theInternet or a private network such as a local area network (LAN)).

The user devices 104, 153 may be portable computing devices such aselectronic book readers or tablet computers (e.g., that include a bookreader application). Other examples of portable computing devicesinclude cellular telephones, personal digital assistants (PDAs),portable media players, netbooks, and the like. The user devices 104,153 may also be non-portable computing devices such as a desktopcomputer, a set-top box associated with a television, a gaming console,and so on. The user devices 104, 153 are variously configured withdifferent functionality to enable consumption of one or more types ofelectronic publications. The electronic publications may be electronicbooks (ebooks) such as electronic textbooks, electronic magazines,digital newspapers, digital audio books, electronic journals, realsimple syndication (RSS) feeds, etc. The electronic publications mayalso include digital video (e.g., movies, television, short clips,etc.), images (e.g., art, photographs, etc.), and multi-media content.

The content providing system 120 corresponds to any functionality orcombination of functionality for providing electronic publications tothe user devices 104, 153. The content providing system 120 includes anetwork-accessible server-based functionality (content server 125),various data stores (not shown), and/or other data processing equipment.The content providing system 120 may be implemented by a single machineor a cluster of machines. The content providing system 120 may includeone or more machines (e.g., one or more server computer systems,routers, gateways, etc.) that have processing and storage capabilitiesto provide the server-based functionality.

In one embodiment, the content server 125 corresponds to an entity whichprovides electronic publications (e.g., electronic textbooks) to userdevices upon users' purchase of the items. In this role, the contentserver 125 may essentially act as a bookseller or the like. In othercases, the content server 125 corresponds to an entity which provideselectronic publications to users on a non-fee basis or on the basis ofsome other type of alternative compensation arrangement. Thus, the terma “provider” of items should be construed broadly to encompasseducational institutions, governmental organizations, libraries,non-profit organizations, retailers, auction services, and so on, orsome cooperative combination of any two or more entities.

The content server 125 delivers, and the user devices 104, 153 receive,electronic publications (or other media items), search results,upgrades, and/or other information via the network 106. For example, theuser devices 104, 153 may download or receive ebooks from the contentserver 125. The content server 125 also receives various requests (e.g.,search queries), instructions and other data from the user devices 104,153 via the network 106.

Communication between the user devices 104, 153 and the contentproviding system 120 may be enabled via any communicationinfrastructure. One example of such an infrastructure includes acombination of a wide area network (WAN) and wireless infrastructure,which allows a user to use the user devices 104, 153 to purchase items(e.g., electronic publications) and consume items without being tetheredto the content providing system 120 via hardwired links. The wirelessinfrastructure may be provided by one or multiple wirelesscommunications systems, such as wireless communications system 110.Wireless communication system 110 may be a wireless fidelity (WiFi)hotspot connected with the network 106. Wireless communication system110 may also be a wireless carrier system that can be implemented usingvarious data processing equipment, communication towers, etc.Alternatively, or in addition, the wireless carrier system may rely onsatellite technology to exchange information with the user devices 104,153.

The communication infrastructure may also include acommunication-enabling system 115 that serves as an intermediary inpassing information between the content providing system 120 and thewireless communication system 110. The communication-enabling system 115may communicate with the wireless communication system 110 (e.g., awireless carrier) via a dedicated channel, and may communicate with thecontent providing system 120 via a non-dedicated communicationmechanism, e.g., a public Wide Area Network (WAN) such as the Internet.

User devices 104 and 153 each include a content access module 135, whichmay be implemented in hardware, software, firmware, or a combinationthereof. The content access module 135 includes functionality to enableconsumption of one or more types of electronic books (ebooks) and/orother electronic publications (electronic versions of publications) suchas electronic magazines, digital newspapers, electronic journals, realsimple syndication (RSS) feeds, videos, images, digital films, etc.

The content access module 135 includes an access behavior trackingmodule 140. The access behavior tracking module 140 tracks a user'saccess behavior for passages of an electronic publication. This mayinclude tracking the last accessed passages of one or multiple sectionsof electronic publications, tracking the frequency of access for eachpassage of an electronic publication, tracking the amount of time thateach passage of an electronic publication is displayed, and so on. Basedon the user's access behavior, the access behavior tracking module 140may determine a user's favorite passages and/or automatically generatemarkers that can be used to return to specific passages (e.g., lastpassages read by a user, favorite passages of the user, etc.). Contentaccess module 135 and access behavior tracking module 140 are describedin greater detail with reference to FIG. 2 below.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of one embodiment of a content access module205. In one embodiment, content access module 205 corresponds to contentaccess module 135 of FIG. 1. Content access module 205 presentselectronic publications to users, which may include displaying text,displaying images, displaying video, playing music, playing other audio,etc. Content access module 205 may provide a user interface that a usercan interact with to select and load electronic publications, play andpause electronic audio and/or video publications, switch pages forelectronic print publications, etc. In one embodiment, content accessmodule 205 includes an access behavior tracking module 210, an eventdetecting module 215, a server interaction module 220 and a publicationloading module 225. In one embodiment, content access module 205 isconnected to a data store 240, which may be a file system, database orother data management layer resident on a data storage device such as adisk drive, RAM, ROM, database, etc.

Electronic publications include a collection of passages. For electronicprint publications, each passage may be a word, sentence, paragraph,page, table, image, etc. For electronic audio publications, each passagemay be a spoken word, phrase, clip having a predetermined length (e.g.,a 5 second audio clip), etc. For electronic video publications, apassage may be a frame, a sequence of frames, a clip having apredetermined length, etc. Each passage may be assigned a uniqueidentifier and/or address that may be used to locate and operate on(e.g., display) the passage. The unique identifiers may be referred toas invariant reference identifiers. In one embodiment, each passage isassigned an address based on a byte offset for that passage from thebeginning of the electronic publication. Access behavior tracking module210 may use the identifiers/addresses of the passages to track useraccess behavior for those passages.

Passages of an electronic publication may be arranged into sections.Each section includes a contiguous sequence of passages. The sectionsmay be static or may be dynamic. One example of static sections arechapters. For example, a first chapter of an electronic book may includepassages having addresses 1-1000, a second chapter of the electronicbook may include passages having addresses 1001-1900, etc.

In one embodiment, access behavior tracking module 210 includes adynamic sectioning module 238 that generates dynamic sections for anelectronic publication as a user consumes the electronic publication.Dynamic sectioning module 238 may generate a separate dynamic sectionfor a passage or series of passages of an electronic publication that auser accesses that are non-contiguous with other passages that the userhas accessed. For example, if the user reads passages 1-400, a firstsection that includes passages 1-400 may be generated. If the user thenjumps to passage 500 and reads to passage 1000, a second section thatincludes passages 500-1000 may be generated.

Event detecting module 215 detects access events for electronicpublications. Such access events may include opening an electronicpublication, closing an electronic publication, presenting differentpassages (e.g., changing pages for an ebook), and so forth. Forelectronic print publications, some example access events includechanging a font size, changing to a next or previous page, jumping to aselected page, passage or section, etc. For an electronic audiopublication or electronic video publication, example access events mayinclude rewind, fast forward, pause, etc. When an access event isdetected, event detecting module 215 reports the access event to accessbehavior tracking module 210.

Access behavior tracking module 210 identifies specific passages thatare presented by the user device at any given time. Access behaviortracking module 210 tracks a user's access behavior while the userconsumes (e.g., reads, listens to, watches, etc.) an active electronicpublication. Tracking a user's access behavior may include monitoringand recording a time stamp for each passage (e.g., based on accessing aclock included in the user device) indicating when the passage wasaccessed by the user (presented by the content access module 205) and atime stamp for each passage indicating when the content access module205 stopped presenting the passage. This information may be used toidentify a presentation duration for a passage or passages.

Tracking a user's access behavior may also include counting a number oftimes that the user accesses each passage. In one embodiment, accessbehavior tracking module 205 additionally records access information fordynamic and/or static sections. Thus, the access behavior trackingmodule 210 can track the amount of time that a specific passage and/orsection is presented to a user, can track how many times a user accessespassages and/or sections, and can time stamp accesses to passages and/orsections of the electronic publication.

Access behavior tracking module 210 may record the user's accessbehavior data 250 in data store 240. The user access behavior data 250may include information identifying a passage or passages of theelectronic publication that were accessed, how long the passages werepresented on the user device, how many times the passages have beenpresented on the user device, dates when the passages were accessed, alast passage or passages that were accessed, and so forth. The useraccess behavior data 250 may also include information identifying staticand/or dynamic sections (e.g., the passages included in each of thesections), last passages of the sections that were accessed by the user,dates and times of when the sections were last accessed, etc.

In one embodiment, access behavior tracking module 210 computes a user'saverage reading speed and stores this information in the user accessbehavior data 250. The user's average reading speed may be used todetermine whether a particular passage that was displayed to the userwas actually read by the user. In one embodiment, a minimum display timethreshold is set based on a standard deviation from the user's averagereading speed (e.g., 2 standard deviations below the user's averagereading speed). If the presentation time for a passage is below theminimum display time threshold, then access behavior tracking module 210does not record the passage as having been presented to the user (orread by the user). For example, if the user's average reading speed is 1page per minute, but the user issued a change page command after only 2seconds, then access behavior tracking module 210 may determine that thepassages that were displayed on the page were not read by the user. Inone embodiment, dynamic sectioning module 238 uses this information togenerate and/or identify different dynamic sections. For example,consider an instance in which the user issues a next page command twicerapidly while a first page is displayed, causing the passages in asecond page to only be displayed for a few seconds before a third pageis displayed. In this instance, the passages in the second page andthird page will not be added to the dynamic section that includes thepassages in the first page. Instead, a new dynamic section will begenerated, and the passages in the third page will be added to the newdynamic section. The new dynamic section will start at the first passageon the third page.

In one embodiment, if a user reads (or otherwise accesses) the passagesseparating two dynamic sections (e.g., the user reads the passages inthe second page from the above example), then the two dynamic sectionswill merge into a single dynamic section. Alternatively, the dynamicsections may remain as two separate dynamic sections, with thesubsequent dynamic section having a starting point that corresponds toan endpoint of the previous dynamic section.

In one embodiment, the access behavior tracking module 210 includes apassive marking module 235. Passive marking module 235 automaticallygenerates a passive marker 245 upon detection of predefined events andstores the passive marker 245 in data store 240. A passive marker 245may include an address/identifier of a passage and a time stampindicating when the marker 245 was generated. Additionally, the marker245 may include contextual information about the passage and/or about asection that includes the passage. This may include chapter information,a page number, language from the passage and/or neighboring passages,etc. The marker 245 may also include an identifier of the user devicethat generated the marker 245, which may identify a device type of theuser device. The passive marking module 235 may generate passive markersfor one or more sections of the electronic publication. In oneembodiment, the passive marking module 235 maintains a different markerfor each dynamic section of the electronic publication. In oneembodiment, each marker 245 includes an address/identifier of a firstpassage of an associated section in addition to the address/identifierof a last presented passage of the section. This information may be usedto identify all of the passages included in the section.

In one embodiment, passive marking module 235 determines for a newlygenerated marker whether the new marker should overwrite any preexistingmarker. If sectioning (e.g., dynamic sectioning) is implemented, thenpassive marking module 235 may determine whether there is a preexistingmarker for a current section. If there is a preexisting marker, thenpassive marking module 235 may overwrite the preexisting marker with thenew marker. If sectioning is not implemented, passive marking module 235may determine whether any markers exist for a passage of a page thatimmediately precedes a current page (e.g., current page minus one). If amarker for the preceding page is found, then passive marking module 235may overwrite that marker with the new marker.

In one embodiment, each passage is associated with an address within theelectronic publication. Passive marking module 235 may examine theaddresses of passages included in any preexisting markers. If an addressof a passage associated with a preexisting marker is smaller than anaddress of the last passage of the current page and is within athreshold deviation from the address of the last passage of the currentpage, then passive marking module 235 determines that the preexistingmarker is for a previous page. The threshold deviation may be set basedon a number of passages that would fit on a single page (oralternatively based on the number of passages that would fit on twopages). For example, if 50 passages will fit on a page, and the lastpassage for the current page is 50, then any marker for a passage havingan address of 1-49 may be replaced. In one embodiment, passive markingmodule 235 determines the number of passages that can fit on a singlepage based on a current font size. As the font size increases, fewerpassages may fit on a single page.

In one embodiment, the passive marking module 235 automaticallygenerates a marker 245 for a section when the user device stopspresenting that section. Passive marking module 235 may generate amarker 245 in response to event detecting module 215 detecting an eventthat will cause a current section to end, will cause the electronicpublication to close, will cause the user device to power down, and soon. Consider the example in which the user reads passages 1-100, andthen issues a command to skip from passage 100 to passage 1000. Uponevent detecting module 215 detecting this command, passive markingmodule 235 generates a marker 245 that marks passage 100 as the lastpassage of the dynamic section, and stores the marker 245 in the datastore 240. Therefore, a user may later use the marker to return topassage 100 and continue where the user left off from the end of thesection. Additionally, dynamic sectioning module 238 may generate a newdynamic section that begins at passage 1000. In one embodiment, thepassage marker 245 is a component of a dynamic section 248 thatidentifies the last passage in the dynamic section 248. In oneembodiment, the passage marking module 235 and dynamic sectioning module238 are combined into a single module.

In one embodiment, access behavior tracking module 210 includes apassage ranking module 210. Passage ranking module 210 performsstatistical analysis of the user access behavior data 250 to identify auser's favorite passages 255, and stores favorite passage data 255identifying the favorite passages in data store 240. The favoritepassage data 255 may include the contents of the favorite passage, apassage identifier/address, a total presentation time for the passage,an access count for the passage, a time stamp of a most recent access tothe passage, etc. In one embodiment, passage ranking module 230 assignsa score to each passage based on a number of times that the passage hasbeen accessed and the amount of time that the passage has been presentedby the user device. The higher the access count for a passage and thelonger the presentation time for the passage, the higher that passage'sscore.

In one embodiment, passages that have scores that meet or exceed a scorethreshold are identified as favorite passages. The score threshold maybe a static predetermined threshold or may be a dynamic threshold thatis computed based on the user's access behavior data 250. In anotherembodiment, passages that have the highest scores are identified asfavorite passages (e.g., the passages having the highest score and thesecond highest score). In yet another embodiment, the passages havingthe highest score that are over a score threshold are identified asfavorite passages.

In one embodiment, passage ranking module 230 filters the passages basedon an access count threshold and/or a presentation time threshold.Therefore, passages that have been accessed fewer times than the accesscount threshold and/or for less time than the presentation timethreshold are automatically disqualified as favorite passages. In oneembodiment, the access count threshold and/or presentation timethreshold are static thresholds with predetermined values.Alternatively, these thresholds may be dynamic thresholds computed basedon the user's access behavior over multiple electronic publications. Forexample, if the user rarely rereads any material, then the access countthreshold may be set to a low value such as 2 or 3. On the other hand,if the user frequently rereads material, then the access count thresholdmay have a higher value such as 7 or 8. Similarly, if the user is a veryfast reader, then the presentation time threshold may be low (e.g., lessthan a minute).

In one embodiment, the user device includes one or more sensors such astouch sensors, proximity sensors and motion sensors (e.g.,accelerometers, gyroscopes, etc.) that the user device can use toidentify whether the user device is being held by a user. For example,if an accelerometer detects constant or occasional motions and/or aproximity sensor detects a conductive object, then access behaviortracking module 210 may determine that a user is holding the user device(and thus is likely reading or otherwise consuming presented passages).In one embodiment, if the access behavior tracking module 210 determinesthat a user is taking an uncharacteristically long time reading througha passage of text, access behavior tracking module 210 checks data fromone or more sensors to determine whether the user device is being heldby a user. If the user device is not being held by a user and no pageturn signal or other access command has been sent to the user device fora threshold period of time, the access behavior tracking module 210 maydetermine that the user is not currently reviewing the current passage,and record a current time stamp. The access behavior tracking module 210may alternatively deduct time from the current time and record a timestamp with the adjusted time. This may reduce a likelihood that passageson a last page that a user was reading are incorrectly assigned a highpresentation time or classified as favorite passages.

In one embodiment, the user device includes an optical sensor thattracks user eye movement. Access behavior tracking module 210 may thencorrelate the user eye movement to currently displayed passages of text.This information may be used to more accurately identify how a user isprogressing through particular passages, whether a user is nodding off(e.g., if eyes are detected to be closed or droopy), or whether a useris not looking at the user device. Thus, the optical sensor can provideadditional information on a user's access behavior. This additionalinformation may be included in the user access behavior data 250.

Publication loading module 225 loads electronic publications forpresentation by content access module 205. When a publication is loaded,publication loading module determines whether there are any markers 245associated with the publication. If there are markers 245 associatedwith the publication, publication loading module 225 presents themarkers to a user for user selection. The markers 245 may be presentedalong with contextual information about the passages and/or sectionsidentified by the markers. Once the user selects a marker, publicationloading module 225 opens the electronic publication to the passageindicated by the selected marker.

In one embodiment, publication loading module 225 presents a list offavorite passages in response to receiving a command to view favoritepassages. Publication loading module 225 may then receive selection of afavorite passage, and may open the electronic publication to theselected favorite passage.

Server interaction module 220 reports the user's access behavior (e.g.,user access behavior data 250), the user's markers 245 and/or the user'sfavorite passages 255 to a content server. The content server may thenaggregate this information with access behavior data from other users.Additionally, the content server may share the user's favorite passagesand/or markers with other users. In one embodiment, favorite passagesand/or markers are shared in response to receiving a share request fromthe user. In one embodiment, the sharing includes accessing a socialnetwork account (e.g., a Facebook® account, a MySpace® account, aGoodReads® account, etc.) for the user and posting the favorite passagesand/or markers to the social network account.

In one embodiment, server interaction module 220 receives user accessbehavior data 250, markers 245 and/or favorite passages 255 from thecontent server. The received information may be based on userconsumption of the electronic publication on a different user device.Alternatively, the received information may be markers provided by adifferent user that identify passages and/or sections that the otheruser recommends. For example, the other user may be a professor of aclass, and the markers may mark assigned reading for the user. Thereceived information may include markers 245 and/or dynamic sections 248generated by another user device. If the received markers 245 and/ordynamic sections 248 have more recent time stamps than stored markers245 and/or dynamic sections 248, then the received markers 245 anddynamic sections 248 may overwrite the stored markers 245 and dynamicsections 248 generated by content access module 205. This maysynchronize multiple user devices belonging to the user.

Passage ranking module 230 may use both received user access behaviordata and locally generated user access behavior data to score passagesand identify favorite passages. In one embodiment, user access behaviordata 250 includes information identifying a type of device and/or aspecific device on which access events occurred. Therefore, passageranking module 230 may determine general favorite passages as well asfavorite passages based on user device type. For example, passageranking module 230 may determine that particular passages of anelectronic publication are a user's favorite when viewing from a tabletcomputer, and other passages are the user's favorite when viewing froman electronic book reader.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary user device 300. Theuser device 300 may correspond to the user device 104 of FIG. 1 and maybe any type of user device such as an electronic book reader, a PDA, amobile phone, a laptop computer, a portable media player, a tabletcomputer, an electronic pad, a desktop computer, a camera, a videocamera, a netbook, and the like.

The user device 300 includes one or more processors 330, such as one ormore CPUs, microcontrollers, field programmable gate arrays, or othertypes of processors. The user device 300 also includes system memory306, which may correspond to any combination of volatile and/ornon-volatile storage mechanisms. The system memory 306 storesinformation which provides an operating system component 308, variousprogram modules 310 such as an access behavior tracking module(“tracking module”) 360 and/or other components. The user device 300performs functions by using the processor(s) 330 to execute instructionsprovided by the system memory 306.

The user device 300 also includes a data storage device 314 that may becomposed of one or more types of removable storage and/or one or moretypes of non-removable storage. The data storage device 314 includes acomputer-readable storage medium 316 on which is stored one or more setsof instructions embodying any one or more of the methodologies orfunctions described herein. As shown, instructions for the trackingmodule 360 may reside, completely or at least partially, within thecomputer readable storage medium 316, system memory 306 and/or withinthe processor(s) 330 during execution thereof by the user device 300,the system memory 306 and the processor(s) 330 also constitutingcomputer-readable media. In one embodiment, data storage 314 includesdata store 240 of FIG. 2. The user device 300 may also include one ormore input devices 318 (keyboard, mouse device, specialized selectionkeys, etc.) and one or more output devices 320 (displays, printers,audio output mechanisms, etc.).

The user device 300 further includes a wireless modem 322 to allow theuser device 300 to communicate via a wireless network (e.g., such asprovided by the wireless communication system) with other computingdevices, such as remote computers, the content providing system, onlinebook stores, electronic catalogs for libraries, and so forth. Thewireless modem 322 may allow the user device 300 to handle both voiceand non-voice communications (such as communications for text messages,multimedia messages, media downloads, web browsing, etc.) with thewireless communication system 110. The wireless modem 322 may providenetwork connectivity using any type of mobile network technologyincluding, for example, cellular digital packet data (CDPD), generalpacket radio service (GPRS), enhanced data rates for GSM evolution(EDGE), universal mobile telecommunications system (UMTS), 1 times radiotransmission technology (1xRTT), evaluation data optimized (EVDO),high-speed downlink packet access (HSDPA), WiFi, etc. The wireless modem322 may generate signals and send these signals to power amplifier (amp)380 for amplification, after which they are wirelessly transmitted viaantenna 384. In addition to sending data, antenna 384 also receivesdata, which is sent to wireless modem 322 and transferred toprocessor(s) 330.

In one embodiment, user device 300 includes an optical sensor 366. Theoptical sensor 366 may be a low resolution camera (e.g., having 0.2 or0.3 Megapixels) that takes images (e.g., of a user's eyes) on a periodicbasis. Alternatively, the optical sensor 366 may have a higherresolution, such as 1 Megapixel up to 10 or more Megapixels. The opticalsensor 366 may be positioned such that images are taken of a user's facewhile the user holds the user device 300 in front of his face in astandard reading position. Therefore, the optical sensor 366 may be usedto track user eye movement during reading.

In one embodiment, user device 300 includes one or more additionalsensors 368 such as a physical contact sensor, close proximity sensors,or motion sensors. The sensors 368 can detect the presence of human bodyparts, and convey information regarding the detected presence toprocessor(s) 330. In one embodiment, the sensors 368 may be capacitivesensors that are configured to measure capacitance generated by thepresence of the human body part using any one of various techniquesknown in the art, for example, relaxation oscillation, a current versesvoltage phase shift comparison, resistor-capacitor charge timing,capacitive bridge division, charge transfer, sigma-delta modulation, orcharge-accumulation. In an alternative embodiment, the sensors 368 mayalso be optical (e.g., infrared) sensors that use an emitter andreceiver pair to detect the presence of opaque objects. Alternatively,the sensors 368 may be inductive sensors, which include an inductiveloop. When the presence of a human body part (or metal object) isbrought close to the inductive sensor, an induction of the inductiveloop changes, causing the human body part to be detected. Alternatively,the sensors 368 may be ultrasonic sensors that emit an ultrasonic signaland measure a time duration between when a signal is transmitted and thereflection of that signal received (a.k.a., flight response). Thesensors 368 may also include other types of sensors, such as those thatoperate using the detection principles of resistive (e.g., analogresistive, digital resistive or residual resistive), surface acousticwave, electromagnetic, near field imaging, or other technologies. In oneembodiment, multiple different types of sensors are used. Though thedetected object is described herein as a human body part, other types ofobjects may also be detected depending on the sensing technologies used.

In one embodiment, the additional sensors 368 include a motion sensor,such as an accelerometer or gyroscopes. The user device 300 may usemotion data from motion sensors to determine whether a user is holdingthe user device 300. For example, if the user device 300 experiencesconstant minor accelerations, it may be determined that the user device300 is being held in a user's hand. Additionally, if the user device 300is at a particular angle (detectable based on acceleration readings froman accelerometer), it may be determined that the user device 300 isbeing rested on a user's leg during reading.

The processor(s) 330 may include sensor circuitry 335 (e.g., sensordevice drivers) that enables the processor(s) 330 to interpret signalsreceived from the optical sensor(s) 366 and/or additional sensors 368.In one embodiment, the optical sensors 366 and/or additional sensors 368output raw sensor data. In another embodiment, the optical sensors 366and/or additional sensors 368 output fully processed signals to theprocessor(s) 330. For example, the additional sensors 368 may output auser contact/no user contact signal using a single line interface or amulti-line interface. In another embodiment, the additional sensors 368output, for example, positional data and/or object presence data (e.g.,of a human body part) to the processors 330 without first processing thedata. In either instance, the processors 330 may use the sensorcircuitry 335 to process and/or interpret the received data. If data isreceived from multiple sensors, processing the data may includeaveraging the data, identifying a maximum from the data, or otherwisecombining the data from the multiple sensors.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of one embodiment of a content server 400,which may correspond to the content server 125 of FIG. 1. User devicesmay access the content server 400 via a network. In one embodiment, thecontent server 400 includes a data collection and analysis (DCA) module405, a merchant store module 410, a device update module 425, arecommendation module 420 and a device interface module 415.

In one embodiment, content server 400 is connected to a publication datastore 480 and a user data store 440. Publication data store 480 includeselectronic publications 460 and information about electronicpublications 462. Publication information 462 may include identificationinformation (e.g., title, identification number, invariant referencenumber, etc.), available formats (such as whether the content item isavailable as a book, audio, video, executable program, etc.), genre ofelectronic publication (such as mystery, science fiction, biography,horror, reference, game, utility, etc.), related works (such as musictracks found in the same album, books in a series, movies by the samedirector, etc.), sales data (such as historical sales data, quantitiessold/licensed, profit margin, returns, etc.), bibliographic data (suchas author, artist, publisher, edition, length, catalog number, etc.),and so forth. Publication information 462 may also include favoritepassages of one or multiple users. In one embodiment, favorite passagedata identifies the number of users for which passages are favoritepassages.

User data store 440 includes information about specific users. For eachuser, the user data store 440 may include information such as markers445, access behavior data 450, user devices 448, favorite passages 455,purchased publications, 458, etc. Access behavior data 450 may includean electronic publication identification, information pertaining to anelapsed time since last access, total access time of the electronicpublication by the user, an access duration for each passage of theelectronic publication, an access count for each passage of thepublication, a frequency of access for the publication, annotationinformation, such as annotations made by users, etc.

Device interface module 415 interfaces with content access modulesrunning on user devices. The device interface module 415 may receiverequests to perform actions from user devices, such as requests tobrowse available electronic publications, to retrieve additionalinformation about publications, to purchase publications, to check outpublications (e.g., from a library), to reserve publications, to placepublications in a wish list, and so on. Device interface module 415 mayreceive search queries from user devices and provide search results andother information to user devices. Device interface module 415 may alsoperform the transfer of content such as electronic publications,software updates, etc. to user devices. For example, after a user hassearched for a publication, received search results including anelectronic version of that publication that is available in data store440, and purchased the electronic version of the publication frommerchant store module 410, device interface module 415 may download theelectronic version of the publication to the user device.

In one embodiment, device update module 425 maintains an update queue(not shown) for user devices of a user. Entries in the update queue mayinclude software updates, recently purchased publications, accessbehavior data, favorite passage data, markers, etc. Device interfacemodule 415 may send updates to specified user devices based on entriesin the update queue. Therefore, device update module 425 may maintainsynchronization between multiple user devices belonging to a user.

The DCA module 405 collects data pertaining to user interaction withelectronic publications, which is generally referred to as accessbehavior data 450. The DCA module 405 then processes the access behaviordata 450 to determine favorite passages of users. The DCA module 405 mayperform statistical analysis to determine passages that are favoritepassages of multiple users. In one embodiment, performing statisticalanalysis to determine favorite passages includes determining favoritepassages for each user as described above, and then determininguniversal favorite passages based on the individual favorite passages ofusers. Alternatively, user devices may report favorite passages ofparticular users, and DCA module 405 may aggregate this data to identifyuniversal favorite passages. The universal favorite passages may bethose favorite passages that were favorites for the most users. The DCAmodule 405 may determine favorite passages for specific groups of users(e.g., favorite passages for users in a particular age range). The DCAmodule 405 may also determine favorite passages based on device type.For example, DCA module 405 may determine favorite passages for ebookreaders, for tablet computers, for mobile phones, etc.

In one embodiment, the DCA module 405 relates users based on theirfavorite passages. Therefore, relations may be generated between userswho share the same favorite passages for one or more electronicpublications. These relations may be used by recommendation module 420to recommend electronic publications.

The merchant store module 410 enables a user to purchase electronicpublications from the content server 400. The merchant store module 410presents to user devices publication information 462. The publicationinformation 462 may be presented for the user device in the format of asearchable catalog of electronic publications 460. The publicationinformation may include descriptions and other information of variouselectronic publications 460 that may be selected using the merchantstore module 410. The publication information may include, for example,excerpts of the electronic publication based on favorite passages ofusers. The favorite passages may be those passages that are favoritepassages for many users. Alternatively, the favorite passages may befavorite passages of other users that have been related to the currentuser by the DCA module 205. The merchant store module 410 includesfunctionality allowing a user to search and browse though the selectionof electronic publications 460 in publication data store 480. Themerchant store module 410 may also include functionality allowing a userto purchase publications (or, more generally, acquire publications basedon any terms). A user may interact with the merchant store module 410via the device interface module 415.

Recommendation module 420 generates recommendations of electronicpublications for users based on their access behavior data 450 and/ortheir favorite passages 455. The recommendations may be generated for aparticular user, or for a group of users. In one embodiment,recommendation module 420 uses the relations determined by DCA module205 to find for a particular user other users who share the samefavorite passages as the particular user. Recommendation module 420 thenidentifies other favorite passages of those other users for publicationsnot consumed by the particular user, and generates recommendations forthe particular user based on those other favorite passages.Recommendation module 420 may recommend the electronic publications thatthose other favorite passages are excerpts from. In addition to usingsimilar behavior of other users, recommendations may be based on othertechniques, such as item-to-item similarity mappings, various clusteringtechniques, viewing histories, purchase histories, and so forth. Forinstance, the user may also receive recommendations based on contentitems that have previously been purchased.

In one embodiment, content server 400 includes an author/publisherinterface module 422. Author/publisher interface module 422 reportsusers' favorite passages and/or universal favorite passages topublishers and/or authors of electronic publications. In one embodiment,author/publisher interface module 422 anonymizes the favorite passageinformation before sending it to the authors and/or publishers.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary server computingdevice 500. In one embodiment, the server computing device correspondsto content providing system 125 of FIG. 1. The server computing device500 includes a set of instructions for causing the machine to performany one or more of the methodologies discussed herein. In alternativeembodiments, the machine may be connected (e.g., networked) to othermachines in a LAN, an intranet, an extranet, or the Internet. Themachine may operate in the capacity of a server machine in client-servernetwork environment. The machine may be a personal computer (PC), aset-top box (STB), a server, a network router, switch or bridge, or anymachine capable of executing a set of instructions (sequential orotherwise) that specify actions to be taken by that machine. Further,while only a single machine is illustrated, the term “machine” shallalso be taken to include any collection of machines that individually orjointly execute a set (or multiple sets) of instructions to perform anyone or more of the methodologies discussed herein.

The exemplary server computing device 500 includes a processing system(processor) 502, a main memory 504 (e.g., read-only memory (ROM), flashmemory, dynamic random access memory (DRAM) such as synchronous DRAM(SDRAM), etc.), a static memory 506 (e.g., flash memory, static randomaccess memory (SRAM), etc.), and a secondary memory 518, whichcommunicate with each other via a bus 530.

Processor 502 represents one or more general-purpose processing devicessuch as a microprocessor, central processing unit, or the like. Moreparticularly, the processor 502 may be a complex instruction setcomputing (CISC) microprocessor, reduced instruction set computing(RISC) microprocessor, very long instruction word (VLIW) microprocessor,or a processor implementing other instruction sets or processorsimplementing a combination of instruction sets. The processor 502 mayalso be one or more special-purpose processing devices such as anapplication specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a field programmablegate array (FPGA), a digital signal processor (DSP), network processor,or the like. The processor 502 is configured to execute the contentserver 400 for performing the operations and steps discussed herein.

The server computing device 500 may further include a network interfacedevice 522. The server computing device 500 also may include a videodisplay unit 510 (e.g., a liquid crystal display (LCD) or a cathode raytube (CRT)), an alphanumeric input device 512 (e.g., a keyboard), acursor control device 514 (e.g., a mouse), and a signal generationdevice 520 (e.g., a speaker).

The secondary memory 518 may include a computer-readable medium 524 onwhich is stored one or more sets of instructions 526 (e.g., instructionsof content sever 400) embodying any one or more of the methodologies orfunctions described herein. The content server 400 may also reside,completely or at least partially, within the main memory 504 and/orwithin the processor 502 during execution thereof by the computer system500, the main memory 504 and the processor 502 also constitutingcomputer-readable media.

While the computer-readable storage medium 524 is shown in an exemplaryembodiment to be a single medium, the term “computer-readable storagemedium” should be taken to include a single medium or multiple media(e.g., a centralized or distributed database, and/or associated cachesand servers) that store the one or more sets of instructions. The term“computer-readable storage medium” shall also be taken to include anymedium that is capable of storing, encoding or carrying a set ofinstructions for execution by the machine and that cause the machine toperform any one or more of the methodologies of the present invention.The term “computer-readable storage medium” shall accordingly be takento include, but not be limited to, solid-state memories, optical media,and magnetic media.

FIG. 6 is a flow diagram of one embodiment for a method 600 of trackingpassages of an electronic publication and automatically generatingmarkers. The method is performed by processing logic that may comprisehardware (circuitry, dedicated logic, etc.), software (such as is run ona general purpose computer system or a dedicated machine), or acombination of both. In one embodiment, method 600 is performed by auser device or by a component of a user device. For example, method 600may be performed by an access behavior tracking module 140 of userdevice 104 of FIG. 1. In one embodiment, processing logic includes oneor more hardware or software modules, such as the modules of contentaccess module 205 of FIG. 2.

Referring to FIG. 6, at block 605 of method 600 processing logic trackspassages of an electronic publication presented by a user device.Tracking the passages includes tracking a last passage presented by theuser device (e.g., the last passage of a last page presented by the userdevice). Tracking the passages displayed by the user device may includedetermining how much time the user spends reading passages of thepublication, maintaining access counts for the passages, and so on.

At block 610, processing logic detects an access event. Examples ofaccess events include commands to close a content access module,commands to close an electronic publication, commands to power down auser device, commands to present new passages on the user device (e.g.,to present a next page or to skip to a designated page), the user devicepresenting a new page, and so on. At block 615, processing logicgenerates a marker identifying a last passage of a current page of theelectronic publication.

At block 620, processing logic determines whether to replace apreexisting marker with the generated marker. In one embodiment,processing logic determines to replace a preexisting marker ifprocessing logic identifies a preexisting marker for a passageassociated with a preceding page. For example, if the current marker isfor a passage on page 9, and there is a preexisting marker for a passageon page 8, then the preexisting marker will be replaced. If processinglogic determines to replace a preexisting marker, the method continuesto block 625, and processing logic overwrites the preexisting marker.Otherwise, the method proceeds to block 630 and processing logic storesthe marker without overwriting any preexisting markers.

FIG. 7 is a flow diagram of another embodiment for a method 700 oftracking passages of an electronic publication and automaticallygenerating markers. The method is performed by processing logic that maycomprise hardware (circuitry, dedicated logic, etc.), software (such asis run on a general purpose computer system or a dedicated machine), ora combination of both. In one embodiment, method 700 is performed by auser device or by a component of a user device. For example, method 700may be performed by an access behavior tracking module 140 of userdevice 104 of FIG. 1. In one embodiment, processing logic includes oneor more hardware or software modules, such as the modules of contentaccess module 205 of FIG. 2.

Referring to FIG. 7, at block 705 of method 700 processing logic trackspassages of an electronic publication presented by a user device.Tracking the passages includes tracking a last passage presented by theuser device (e.g., the last passage of a last page presented by the userdevice). Tracking the passages displayed by the user device may includedetermining how much time the user spends reading passages of thepublication, maintaining access counts for the passages, and so on.

At block 710, processing logic detects an access event. Examples ofaccess events include commands to close a content access module,commands to close an electronic publication, commands to power down auser device, and commands to present new passages on the user device(e.g., to present a next page or to skip to a designated page). At block715, processing logic generates a marker identifying a last passage of acurrent section of the electronic publication. The section may includethe passages in a current page, or may include passages spanningmultiple pages. At block 720, processing logic determines whether thereis a preexisting marker for the current section. If there is apreexisting marker for the current section, the method continues toblock 725 and processing logic overwrites the preexisting marker withthe recently generated marker. Otherwise, the method continues to block730 and processing logic stores the marker.

At block 735, processing logic determines whether the event was acommand to switch to a different section (e.g., to a passage that isnon-contiguous with any passage of a current section). If the commandwas a command to switch to a different section, the method proceeds toblock 740. Otherwise, processing logic continues to block 745, and themarker may be reported to a content server.

At block 740, processing logic switches to a passage in a differentsection. If no section has yet been generated for the passage that theprocessing logic switches to, then processing logic dynamicallygenerates a new section. The method then returns to block 705.

FIG. 8 is a flow diagram of one embodiment for a method 800 of openingan electronic publication to a marked passage. The method is performedby processing logic that may comprise hardware (circuitry, dedicatedlogic, etc.), software (such as is run on a general purpose computersystem or a dedicated machine), or a combination of both. In oneembodiment, method 800 is performed by a user device or by a componentof a user device. For example, method 800 may be performed by an accessbehavior tracking module 140 of user device 104 of FIG. 1. In oneembodiment, processing logic includes one or more hardware or softwaremodules, such as the modules of content access module 205 of FIG. 2.

Referring to FIG. 8, at block 805 of method 800 processing logic opensan electronic publication. At block 810, processing logic determineswhether the electronic publication is associated with any markers. Ifthe electronic publication is not associated with any markers, themethod continues to block 820. If the electronic publication isassociated with a single marker, the method proceeds to block 830. Ifthe electronic publication is associated with multiple markers, themethod continues to block 812.

If the electronic publication is not associated with any markers, thenthe electronic publication has not yet been read by a user. Accordingly,at block 820, processing logic presents a first passage of theelectronic publication on the user device.

At block 812, processing logic orders the markers. In one embodiment,the markers are ordered chronologically. Therefore, the marker that wasgenerated the most recently will occur first in the order, and theoldest marker will occur last in the order. Alternatively, the markersmay be ordered based on position in the electronic publication. Forexample, a marker having a passage with address 1000 will be orderedbefore a marker having a passage with address 2000.

At block 815, processing logic presents the markers in the determinedorder with contextual information. The contextual information displayedwith the markers may include a chapter number and title, the contents ofthe passage and/or neighbor passages (e.g., a sentence or paragraph), adate indicating when the marker was generated, and so on. At block 825,processing logic receives a user selection of a marker. At block 830,processing logic presents the passage associated with the marker. Thepassage may be the last passage of a section (e.g., of a dynamicsection). The method then ends.

FIG. 9 is a flow diagram of one embodiment for a method 900 ofidentifying a user's favorite passages. The method is performed byprocessing logic that may comprise hardware (circuitry, dedicated logic,etc.), software (such as is run on a general purpose computer system ora dedicated machine), or a combination of both. In one embodiment,method 900 is performed by a user device or by a component of a userdevice. For example, method 900 may be performed by an access behaviortracking module 140 of user device 104 of FIG. 1. In one embodiment,processing logic includes one or more hardware or software modules, suchas the modules of content access module 205 of FIG. 2.

Referring to FIG. 9, at block 905 of method 900 processing logicpresents passages of an electronic publication on a user device. Atblock 910, processing logic tracks a user's access behavior for thepresented passages. In one embodiment, this includes tracking an amountof time that each passage is presented (block 915) and tracking a numberof times that each passage is presented (block 920).

At block 925, processing logic identifies a user's favorite passages ofthe electronic publication based on the user's access behavior. This mayinclude performing statistical analysis of the user's access behavior.One embodiment for identifying a user's favorite passages is performedby method 900, which is described below. At block 930, processing logicstores the identification of the favorite passages. At block 935,processing logic reports the favorite passages to a content server.Additionally, processing logic may report the favorite passages to asocial network account of the user. Therefore, the user may share hisfavorite passages with friends on his or her social network account.

FIG. 10 is a flow diagram of another embodiment for a method 1000 ofidentifying a user's favorite passages. The method is performed byprocessing logic that may comprise hardware (circuitry, dedicated logic,etc.), software (such as is run on a general purpose computer system ora dedicated machine), or a combination of both. In one embodiment,method 1000 is performed by a user device or by a component of a userdevice. For example, method 1000 may be performed by an access behaviortracking module 140 of user device 104 of FIG. 1. In one embodiment,processing logic includes one or more hardware or software modules, suchas the modules of content access module 205 of FIG. 2. In oneembodiment, method 1000 corresponds to block 925 of method 900.

Referring to FIG. 10, at block 1005 of method 1000 processing logicdetermines whether information identifying a user's access behavior on adifferent user device has been received. If such information has beenreceived, the method proceeds to block 1010. Otherwise, the methodcontinues to block 1015.

At block 1010, processing logic assigns scores to passages based onlocally tracked access behavior and on received user access behavior. Inone embodiment, processing logic determines scores for passages based onan amount of time that the passage was presented by user devices of theuser and the number of times that the passage was presented by the userdevices. Processing logic may also use information from one or moresensors that was gathered while the passages were presented to determineif the user device was held while the passages were presented. Forexample, data from a motion sensor and/or proximity sensor may be usedto determine if the user was holding the user device while the passageswere presented. In one embodiment, processing logic adjusts a passage'sscore downward if processing logic determines that the user device wasnot held while the passage was presented. At block 1015, processinglogic assigns scores to passages based on tracked access behavior of asingle user device

At block 1020, processing logic determines whether any passages havescores that meet or exceed a score threshold. If one or more passageshave scores that meet the score threshold, the method continues to block1025. Otherwise, the method proceeds to block 1030 and processing logicfails to identify any favorite passages.

At block 1025, processing logic ranks passages based on their scores. Atblock 1035, processing logic identifies passages having the highestranks as the user's favorite passages. In one embodiment, user accessbehavior data includes an identifier of a type of device that collectedthe user access behavior data. Accordingly, processing logic mayseparately determine favorite passages per device type in addition tooverall favorite passages of a user.

FIG. 11 shows a graph 1100 that presents user access behavior data forpassages. Passage addresses are indicated along a horizontal axis.Presentation time and access counts are indicated along vertical axes.Accordingly, the graph 1100 shows presentation time for passages 1105and access counts for passages 1110. In this graph 1100, the higher thepresentation time 1105 and the access count 1110 for a passage, thehigher a user's interest for the passage. For example, around passageseven hundred, access counts and presentation time are both maximized.Therefore, it may be determined that the user has favorite passagesaround passage seven hundred.

FIG. 12 is a flow diagram of another embodiment for a method 1200 ofdetermining favorite passages of multiple users. The method is performedby processing logic that may comprise hardware (circuitry, dedicatedlogic, etc.), software (such as is run on a general purpose computersystem or a dedicated machine), or a combination of both. In oneembodiment, method 1200 is performed by a content providing system or bya component of a content providing system. For example, method 1200 maybe performed by a content server 125 of content providing system 125 ofFIG. 1. In one embodiment, processing logic includes one or morehardware or software modules, such as the modules of content server 400of FIG. 4.

Referring to FIG. 12, at block 1205 of method 1200 processing logicreceives information identifying user access behaviors of multiple usersfor an electronic publication. In one embodiment, at block 1210,processing logic normalizes the user access behavior data. In oneembodiment, the user access behavior data is normalized by computingaverage passage presentation duration and average passage access countsfor each user across multiple electronic publications. The access countsand presentation duration for each passage of the particular electronicpublication for a user may then be divided by the average for that userto normalize these values with relation to other users.

At block 1215, processing logic performs statistical analysis of thenormalized user access behavior data to determine favorite passages.Alternatively, processing logic may perform statistical analysis onnon-normalized access behavior data. In one embodiment, processing logicdetermines favorite passages for each user, and then computes ahistogram of favorite passages. The histogram may identify for eachpassage the number of users for whom that passage is a favorite passage.The passages that are favorite passages for the most users may then beidentified as universal favorite passages.

At block 1220, processing logic determines content to present in alisting for an electronic publication based on the favorite passages.For example, processing logic may include excerpts from the electronicpublication for that electronic publication's listing. Those displayedexcerpts may include the favorite passages. In one embodiment, useraccess behavior data includes an identifier of a type of device thatcollected the user access behavior data. Accordingly, processing logicmay separately determine favorite passages per device type in additionto overall favorite passages of a user. Processing logic may also reportthe favorite passages to authors and/or publishers of the electronicpublication.

In the above description, numerous details are set forth. It will beapparent, however, to one of ordinary skill in the art having thebenefit of this disclosure, that embodiments of the invention may bepracticed without these specific details. In some instances, well-knownstructures and devices are shown in block diagram form, rather than indetail, in order to avoid obscuring the description.

Some portions of the detailed description are presented in terms ofalgorithms and symbolic representations of operations on data bitswithin a computer memory. These algorithmic descriptions andrepresentations are the means used by those skilled in the dataprocessing arts to most effectively convey the substance of their workto others skilled in the art. An algorithm is here, and generally,conceived to be a self-consistent sequence of steps leading to a desiredresult. The steps are those requiring physical manipulations of physicalquantities. Usually, though not necessarily, these quantities take theform of electrical or magnetic signals capable of being stored,transferred, combined, compared, and otherwise manipulated. It hasproven convenient at times, principally for reasons of common usage, torefer to these signals as bits, values, elements, symbols, characters,terms, numbers, or the like.

It should be borne in mind, however, that all of these and similar termsare to be associated with the appropriate physical quantities and aremerely convenient labels applied to these quantities. Unlessspecifically stated otherwise as apparent from the above discussion, itis appreciated that throughout the description, discussions utilizingterms such as “tracking”, “generating”, “receiving”, “storing”,“presenting”, “identifying” or the like, refer to the actions andprocesses of a computer system, or similar electronic computing device,that manipulates and transforms data represented as physical (e.g.,electronic) quantities within the computer system's registers andmemories into other data similarly represented as physical quantitieswithin the computer system memories or registers or other suchinformation storage devices.

Embodiments of the invention also relate to an apparatus for performingthe operations herein. This apparatus may be specially constructed forthe required purposes, or it may comprise a general purpose computerselectively activated or reconfigured by a computer program stored inthe computer. Such a computer program may be stored in a computerreadable storage medium, such as, but not limited to, any type of diskincluding optical disks, CD-ROMs, and magnetic-optical disks, read-onlymemories (ROMs), random access memories (RAMs), EPROMs, EEPROMs,magnetic or optical cards, or any type of media suitable for storingelectronic instructions.

It is to be understood that the above description is intended to beillustrative, and not restrictive. Many other embodiments will beapparent to those of skill in the art upon reading and understanding theabove description. The scope of the invention should, therefore, bedetermined with reference to the appended claims, along with the fullscope of equivalents to which such claims are entitled.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method comprising: tracking passages of anelectronic publication presented by a user device; generating, by theuser device, a first section for the electronic publication based on thetracking, the first section comprising a first set of passages of theelectronic publication, wherein the first section is generated withoutexplicit user input to generate the first section; generating, by theuser device, without explicit user input, a first marker identifying alast passage of the first section presented by the user device inresponse to detecting a first event; generating a second section for theelectronic publication based on the tracking, the second sectioncomprising a second set of passages of the electronic publication,wherein the second section is generated without explicit user input togenerate the second section; and generating, without explicit userinput, a second marker identifying a last passage of the second sectionof the electronic publication presented by the user device in responseto detecting a second event, wherein the second marker does notoverwrite the first marker.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the firstsection comprises a first series of contiguous passages that were readby the user, the second section comprises a second series of contiguouspassages that were read by the user, and the second section is separatedfrom the first section by at least one passage that was not read by theuser.
 3. The method of claim 2, further comprising: determining that apassage has been read by the user if the passage was presented by theuser device for at least a threshold amount of time.
 4. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the first event and the second event each comprise oneof the user device powering down, the user device closing the electronicpublication, or the user device presenting one or more new passages. 5.The method of claim 1, further comprising: transmitting the first markerand the second marker to a server, wherein the server automaticallysends the first marker and the second marker to one or more additionaluser devices to synchronize the one or more additional devices to theuser device.
 6. The method of claim 1, further comprising: after openingthe electronic publication, presenting the first marker with firstcontextual information and presenting the second marker with secondcontextual information; receiving a user selection of the first marker;and presenting the last passage of the first section after receiving theuser selection of the first marker.
 7. The method of claim 6, furthercomprising: adding a first time stamp to the first marker identifyingwhen the first marker was generated and adding a second time stamp tothe second marker identifying when the second marker was generated; andordering the markers chronologically based on the time stamps.
 8. Anon-transitory computer readable storage medium including instructionsthat, when executed by a processing device, cause the processing deviceto perform operations comprising: tracking, by the processing device,passages of an electronic publication presented by a user device;generating, by the processing device, a first section for the electronicpublication based on the tracking, the first section comprising a firstset of passages of the electronic publication, wherein the first sectionis generated without explicit user input to generate the first section;generating, by the processing device, without explicit user input, afirst marker identifying a last passage of the first section presentedby the user device in response to detecting a first event; generating asecond section for the electronic publication based on the tracking, thesecond section comprising a second set of passages of the electronicpublication, wherein the second section is generated without explicituser input to generate the second section; and generating, withoutexplicit user input, a second marker identifying a last passage of thesecond section of the electronic publication presented by the userdevice in response to detecting a second event, wherein the secondmarker does not overwrite the first marker.
 9. The non-transitorycomputer readable storage medium of claim 8, wherein the first sectioncomprises a first series of contiguous passages that were read by theuser, the second section comprises a second series of contiguouspassages that were read by the user, and the second section is separatedfrom the first section by at least one passage that was not read by theuser.
 10. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim9, the operations further comprising: determining that a passage hasbeen read by the user if the passage was presented by the user devicefor at least a threshold amount of time.
 11. The non-transitory computerreadable storage medium of claim 8, wherein the first event and thesecond event each comprise one of the user device powering down, theuser device closing the electronic publication, or the user devicepresenting one or more new passages.
 12. The non-transitory computerreadable storage medium of claim 8, the operations further comprising:transmitting the first marker and the second marker to a server, whereinthe server sends the first marker and the second marker to one or moreadditional user devices.
 13. The non-transitory computer readablestorage medium of claim 8, the operations further comprising: afteropening the electronic publication, presenting the first marker withfirst contextual information and presenting the second marker withsecond contextual information; receiving a user selection of the firstmarker; and presenting the last passage of the first section afterreceiving the user selection of the first marker.
 14. The non-transitorycomputer readable storage medium of claim 13, the operations furthercomprising: adding a first time stamp to the first marker identifyingwhen the first marker was generated and adding a second time stamp tothe second marker identifying when the second marker was generated; andordering the markers chronologically based on the time stamps.
 15. Anapparatus comprising: a processor to: present passages of an electronicpublication; track the presented passages; generate a first section forthe electronic publication based on the tracking, the first sectioncomprising a first set of passages of the electronic publication,wherein the first section is generated without explicit user input togenerate the first section; generate, without explicit user input, afirst marker identifying a last passage of the first section presentedby the apparatus in response to detecting a first event; generate asecond section for the electronic publication based on the tracking, thesecond section comprising a second set of passages of the electronicpublication, wherein the second section is generated without explicituser input to generate the second section; and generate, withoutexplicit user input, a second marker identifying a last passage of thesecond section of the electronic publication presented by the apparatusin response to detecting a second event; and a memory to store the firstmarker and the second marker, wherein the second marker does notoverwrite the first marker.
 16. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein thefirst section comprises a first series of contiguous passages that wereread by the user, the second section comprises a second series ofcontiguous passages that were read by the user, and the second sectionis separated from the first section by at least one passage that was notread by the user.
 17. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the processoris configured to determine, for a passage, that the passage has beenread by the user if the passage was presented by the apparatus for atleast a threshold amount of time.
 18. The apparatus of claim 15, whereinthe first event and the second event each comprise one of the apparatuspowering down, the apparatus closing the electronic publication, or theapparatus skipping one or more passages to present a new section. 19.The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the processor is further configuredto: after opening the electronic publication, present the first markerwith first contextual information and present the second marker withsecond contextual information; receive a user selection of the firstmarker; and present the last passage of the first section afterreceiving the user selection of the first marker.
 20. The apparatus ofclaim 19, wherein the processor is further configured to: add a firsttime stamp to the first marker identifying when the first marker wasgenerated and add a second time stamp to the second marker identifyingwhen the second marker was generated; and order the markerschronologically based on the time stamps.